- I was told I was eligible for rehire. I found out that I'm not up to their standards. They won't tell me what those standards are nor answer my questions about work I could have done.
- I was told I could appeal the decision that led to me leading the company. I found out that any opportunity I had to file a grievance was immediately squelched the moment my resignation took effect.
- I've received two separate recruiting advertisements asking me to come back to the company, with one saying "we're committed to you." I found out that it may as well read "we're committed to you" never driving for anyone ever again.
That final point isn't hyperbole, either. I made a follow up call today to another trucking company to find out what the status of my application was. They told me that my driving report showed three preventable accidents: a minor right turn incident in January 2010 that I didn't write a blog post about and two preventable accidents on November 11, 2008. The second one that involved me hitting a building isn't in dispute; I still remember doing that and I still can't begin to excuse that. The problem is the other incident.
As I documented in that blog post, the first incident involved a narrow overpass on a non-truck route and oncoming traffic that didn't give me any room. I moved right and smacked the passenger side mirror against the side of the tractor. It's hard to claim that such an incident was preventable: the road was not wide enough for both me and the oncoming vehicle and I had little choice but to nudge to the right as he came into my lane. When I went to the shop later to have it looked at, the mechanics could find no damage to the truck whatsoever; they said they've seen bird strikes do substantially more damage. Seems like a pretty cut-and-dried example of a non-preventable accident, right?
Well, something like that is pretty straightforward unless your company writes it up as striking a moving vehicle. Yep, that's right: Schneider reported a non-preventable incident in which I was run off the road as a collision with a moving vehicle. I never knew this until I talked to another prospective employer today and found out what was on my driving history. So I called Schneider back and, after another brief round of phone tag, I talked to the guy who replaced my former boss. He said he'd look into it.
An hour later, I get a call from Schneider. This was noteworthy on its own, as it was the first time anyone from the company has returned a call in more than a month. I talked to the same guy again and heard this gem: Neither the insurance or loss prevention departments could find anything in their records that involved me hitting a moving vehicle. There was no explanation, at all, for how something like that could have possibly ended up on my driving record. The people who can correct it had already left the office by that time, but supposedly they'll work on getting that corrected tomorrow.
So you'd think that once they change "hit another car" to "run off the road by a car" on my record, it wouldn't count against me, right? I certainly thought so. But no, they're still not going to make it that easy. Because it was initially ruled preventable - even though that determination was based on false information - and I didn't appeal it within thirty days it's going to remain on my record as a preventable incident. That means I'd still have three preventables in the last three years, which is an automatic no-hire for pretty much any trucking company out there. I was floored. I remember receiving a letter regarding incidents that day saying something had been ruled preventable, but had I known they were counting both incidents I obviously would have appealed that decision. In light all this, I was advised that the only thing I could do is contact the insurance and/or loss prevention departments tomorrow during regular business hours, when people who have the authority to do something about it are in the office.
Against my better judgement, I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt, give them the morning to fix it themselves, call around noon to see if they've corrected the records. If they've amended my driver report to show what actually happened that day and have marked it as non-preventable then I can start calling other employers again. The company that informed me of the problem on my records all but said that if I can get that fixed I'll have a job. However, if they don't fix my report, they're committing libel and I'll have to find an attorney to get things settled. And yes, this is a very obvious case of libel: it's a false statement, it's harming me (by preventing me from getting a job), and they should know better because their own records don't back up their claim.
At this point I see nothing wrong with posting this much information about what happened. Schneider has made it very, very clear they do not want me to work for them again and equally clear that they've little desire to even try make things right until forced them to do so. Absolutely everything I've posted above is true; I don't have to even make stuff up to show how screwed up this situation is. I'd rather just get things straightened out so I can start working for a company that treats employees with some dignity. Schneider has shown a rather shocking amount of dishonesty and deceitfulness at almost every step of this entire process.
In closing, for anyone considering following in my footsteps with the company, take this as a warning: don't work for Schneider National unless you absolutely have to.
